‘Last Exorcism Part II’: Found footage gone, contortion remains

Jan. 09, 2013 | 4:32 p.m.

Back in 2010, the low-budget horror movie “The Last Exorcism” became a breakout hit, a sort of spiritual follow-up to “The Blair Witch Project” with its found footage setup and head-scratcher of an ending.

Judging from the first trailer for “The Last Exorcism Part II,” due for release from CBS Films March 1, the sequel trades in the found-footage conceit for a more conventionally cinematic approach, even if it retains the same body-bending scares.

The first film starred veteran character actor Patrick Fabian as a disillusioned preacher looking to debunk the idea of demonic possession by staging a phony exorcism for a documentary film crew. When he encounters a young girl named Nell (Ashley Bell) among a backwoods Louisiana community whose condition he can’t explain away, it turns everything he believes on its head.

In the new film, directed and c0-written by Ed Gass-Donnelly, Nell is discovered in New Orleans with only a spotty memory of the last few months, though she understands that she’s the sole surviving member of her family. But her attempts to begin a new life are turned upside down when evil finds her once more.

Bell won considerable notice for her performance as Nell the first time around, and the sequel certainly appears to offer her another chance to push herself as an actress, especially when it comes to the gravity-defying contortions she’s required to simulate in some fashion as Nell loses control of her body.

Guessing she must do a lot of yoga.

What do you think? Is the trailer terrifying? Leave your comments below.